USDC - Stellar FAQ

USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin developed by the Centre Consortium, a collaboration between Circle Internet Financial (Circle) and Coinbase. It's a digital asset issued by regulated financial institutions, it's fully backed by reserve assets, and it's redeemable on a 1:1 basis for US dollars.

Centre is a USDC consortium jointly led by Circle and Coinbase, with a vision of building a standard set of protocols for fiat-denominated digital currencies that can work across different wallets, currencies, and platforms.

Circle Internet Financial is a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of stablecoins and public blockchains for payments and commerce worldwide. Circle was founded in 2013 and is backed by $250 million from investors including Jim Breyer (Facebook), IDG Capital (Baidu, Tencent), General Catalyst (Airbnb, Stripe), Accel Partners, and Bitmain, with offices in Boston, New York, Dublin and London.

USDC is expected to be live and available on Stellar by February 2021.

The short answer: Circle Internet Financial will issue a USDC asset on the Stellar network. Developers and businesses will be able integrate it into Stellar-based apps and services to allow users to make deposits and withdrawals; users will be able to hold, transfer, and trade USDC just like any other asset on the network.

Stellar USDC is part of Centre's multi-chain USDC framework: it will coexist and interoperate with various USDC tokens on other chains, including the original Ethereum USDC token. Each chain offers advantages tied to specific use cases. Stellar, which is designed to connect all the world's currencies on a single platform, unlocks a whole new realm of payment-related applications for USDC.

Circle offers developers a multi-chain USDC swap service free of charge.

USDC is held to Centre’s high standards to maximize the security of customer funds. It has proven adoption and deep global liquidity across countries and platforms, which make it an optimal asset for use in cross-border transactions. Fundamentally, it will make it easier to build apps and services that provide reliable access to tokenized USD to businesses and consumers all over the world.

Initially, Stellar-based USDC will be available at no cost via Circle’s Business Accounts. Developers can access it using both API and GUI, as well as through other Circle products.

Soon thereafter, other businesses in the Stellar ecosystem plan to offer on/off-ramps for USDC, including ones that comply with the SEP-24 standard to allow for seamless interoperability with wallets and applications. Those on/off ramps will allow any app built on Stellar to offer in-app deposits and withdrawals of USDC.

Licensed entities can offer on/off-ramp solutions for USDC to facilitate fiat deposits and withdrawals. High quality providers comply with the following requirements:

• Deposits and withdrawals must be processed through local domestic payment rails (ACH, SEPA, SPEI, etc.), not via wire transfer
• Deposit and withdrawal flows follow Stellar ecosystem standards to allow for seamless interoperability between wallets and anchors across the network, as described in our developer documentation
• Anchors maintain a customer support function to ensure customer queries and/or problems are resolved in a timely manner
• Anchors maintain a comprehensive AML policy and program, including the ability to perform KYC checks on new customers

For all locations where an anchor makes their services available, they must comply with:

Regulatory, registration, and licensing obligations to perform the anchor’s financial and money transmission services

• Financial crimes, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorism obligations
• Data privacy rules and regulations;
• Industry standard cybersecurity practices;

Anchors must also comply with U.S. sanctions.

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For more information and release updates on Stellar USDC by Circle, visit their website.